Extreme Democrats against "extremism"
Have some self-awareness, yo
I’ve spent a lot of time recently on the statist-not-dynamic duo of Bernie Sanders and Tina Kotek. I sure wasn’t planning to go back to that well again so soon, but then I saw that photo. The one at the top of this post. The one that features self-described socialist Bernie Sanders standing in front of a banner that says “Standing up to extremism.”
My instant reaction to the photo was, of course, to laugh. Bernie is one of the most, if not the most, politically extreme national figures in the Democratic Party. So much so that I joked on Twitter, after Kotek announced Elizabeth Warren (another contender for the prize), was coming to Oregon:
I tweeted that before Bernie announced he was coming to Oregon. I tweeted it because I thought it was absurd in this political environment that Kotek would campaign with someone as far left as Warren, but it would be even more absurd if she were to campaign with Bernie. Then, 24 hours later…
My point here is that I am honest-to-God flabbergasted that Kotek campaigned with Bernie Sanders in 2022 in the first place. And then came the “extremism” photo and, well, here we are.
Bernie’s visit and the photo demonstrate what I believe to be a core truism of politics: self-awareness, or more precisely, awareness of self in relation to the body politic, is the paramount political trait. Candidates and advocates of both parties often lack this trait, but a lack of self-awareness is undermining progressive Democrats in Oregon and elsewhere this cycle in a big way.
If you enter “extremism” into Google, it delivers:
In other words, one engages in extremism if one is extreme (Google: furthest from the center or a given point; outermost). Bernie is extreme. Warren is extreme. On the Republican side, I don’t know, Mike Lee is extreme. Maybe Ted Cruz is extreme. By definition, there are extremes on both sides.
But that’s not what the Kotek campaign means with the banner “Standing up to Extremism.” To Kotek and her most ardent supporters, extremism connotes the assault on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, and any number of other real or fabricated offenses. Extremism is shorthand for conservatism, or even moderation from the progressive ideal. It’s what they ascribe to people with whom they disagree.
The problem is, the extremism of progressivism is what’s on the ballot in 2022, especially in places like Oregon. The conditions here have gotten that bad.
Progressivism is itself extreme. It holds that the state should defund and denigrate police, decriminalize drugs, release convicted criminals, hold no one except productive people responsible for their own actions and punish those who disagree. Progressivism is extreme. Socialism is extreme. Bernie Sanders is extreme. Tina Kotek is extreme.
But they don’t know it, not at all. That’s how you end up with Bernie Sanders, Tina Kotek and Christina Stephenson (Labor Commissioner candidate who was a member of “Radical Cheerleaders of DC” while at American University) standing beneath a banner that suggests they oppose themselves.